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House Update ~ Repaving the Garden

Wednesday, 4 December 2013

The last few months have been a bit of a whirl. I'm pretty much carrying around a tape measure and tool kit in my bag and my days are awash with deliveries and workmen of various trades.Most of it has been work-related as I'm managing a complete renovation project at the school. But not all of it ~ at home we've had new brickwork laid in the garden, replacing the hideous cracked concrete which has been bugging the life out of me ever since I moved into the flat.I'll post some more photos in the spring when the grass starts to grow back and things are looking a little less stark out there. But for now, here's how we got from this...

to this...

The original concrete was just Hideous with a capital 'H'. Cracked, patched, uneven, moldy, pick your negative adjective and it will probably fit.I'd been looking for a bricklayer for almost 2 years who was able to grasp Mr DI's design for this area (unbelievable, but true!). Eventually I found a local guy, the son of architects himself, who actually knew which bricks we were talking about and understood the look we wanted to achieve. He had a board up outside a house where he'd done some other work and which I pass by on my way to the station every day, so I took a note of his details and got in touch.

Work took rather longer than we'd hoped as the weather wasn't so kind to us for a few weeks, but we finally got there and we are back to normal before Christmas, which was my aim.Lots of these were used to dig up the old concrete base ~ I cheered seeing that piled in a skip outside I can tell you!

It was interesting to see what the excavations dug up and revealed...

This pipe, just outside the back door, is likely the drain from a Victorian outside toilet...

The piles of bricks waiting to be laid provided me with a nice source for some depth of field practice...

And of course I was popping out every morning to grab a few shots of the progress

The sand will darken with time ~ I'm still brushing a bit more over after any rains showers we have.

Unfortunately a good part of my lawn didn't survive the constant walking on and storage of equipment, so I think I'm going to be re-turfing in spring. But frankly, it's no great shakes now that we have lovely even, smooth, flat brickwork to look out on. Come summer the BBQ will be on constant and our outside room will have a whole new life. I also know a small black cat who's going to be pretty happy to sunbathe out here too!